Abstract

This study attempts to describe the historical geography of
a confined region, the Weald, before 1650 on the basis of factual
research; it is also a methodological experiment, since the results
are organised in a consistently retrospective sequence. After
defining the region and surveying its regional geography at the
beginning of the seventeenth century, the antecedents and origins of
various elements in the landscape-woodlands, parks, settlement and
field patterns, industry and towns - are sought by retrospective enquiry.
At two stages in this sequence the regional geography at a particular
period (the early fourteenth century, 1086) is outlined, so that the
interconnections between the different elements in the region should
not be forgotten. The earliest source material used for original
investigation is Anglo-Saxon charters but, to complete the methodological
structure, the inquiry is pursued (by summarising the research of
others) to the first agricultural settlement of the area, ending with
a description of the natural landscape which these first colonists saw.

Type:

Thesis
(Doctoral)

Title:

The Wealden landscape in the early seventeenth century and its antecedents